Pine Nuts and Cumberbitches

Who knew that there were special names for fans of Chris Pine and Benedict Cumberbatch?

I find the names hilarious!  Which one am I ?

I think Chris Pine is very good looking, but I think I'm a Cumberbitch, lol.  Funny to type that out.

I also think that the hubster resembles Benedict when he had long hair when he was younger.  That curly mop of his.

Damn you, Kohls!

Kohls had 75-80% markdowns and additional 25% off on clearance items AND 20% off on stop of that.  Craziness.

My poor wallet.

Day 11: SHOPPING!!!

Yes, of course, I would set aside a whole day for shopping.  Duh!  I set out my plan of attack the night before and figured out where I wanted to go and how to get there.  The first stop for me was City Pharma for French beauty products.

These purchases were all based on reviews from blogs and articles online.  When I googled "must buys in Paris", these keep turning up.  Everything else you can buy in the States except these French pharmacy finds.

Haven't had a chance to try this yet

This is surprisingly refreshing, but I could be just buying into the hype

Sunscreen - I bought the tinted by mistake, but still really like it.  It's very thin and goes on without the greasy feeling of normal sunscreen.

Lip Balm - smells really good, it's very rich.  I don't think I could ever give up Chapstick though

I don't wear a lot of makeup, but everyone swears by this.  I haven't tried it yet

Just started using this toner and skipping the moisturizer, so far so good.

Haven't tried this mask yet

Haven't tried this oil yet.  I will when my current one runs out.  Didn't want to start a new product and love it and then not finish the one I already have.

All around ointment, have not tried

After I got back from my jaunt to the pharmacy, I woke the hubster up and slowly got ready to continue the shopping spree.  We picked up some croissant to go and made out way to the flagship store of Longchamp on Rue St Honore.  I did say that most thing are cheaper in the US with the exception of these bags. I bought two: one weekend travel bag that expands and exclusively sold in Europe Pliage with the Eiffel Tower on it.  I spent significantly less than I would have here.

Weekend getaway bag

Bag for my mom

After I bought the bags, we went to the Arc de Triomphe to see the landmark as well as start at one end of the Champs Elysees.

Kissy kissy

Walking in the underground tunnel to the Arc de Triomphe

Under the arc

Unfortunately for us, as we were viewing the Arc, it started to rain.  And then it POURS!  Great....  I had brought a small travel umbrella with us and it sorta worked.  We stayed mostly dry and we try to power through the rain.  We stopped into H&M because the hubster wanted me to get some faux leather pants.  He's been seeing them on girls everywhere and thinks I would look good in some.  I say sure we can look.  We've popped into a few stores earlier, but they didn't have my size.  Well, we found a pair and I bought them.  I really do like them.  Thanks pookie for the fashion type.  We also bought a large umbrella so we didn't have to share.  It wasn't cheap, but we consider it an investment into our relationship.

Faux leather pants - should have bough the lace shirt

After H&M, we went into the Louis Vuitton flag ship store... just to look.  It was a fun house of LV.  I've never seen so much stuff with the LV logo on it.  It was fun to explore the multi-floor building.  They don't allow photographs, but I did sneak this one on the escalator.

Even the escalator is pretty

We walked some more and once we reached the Metro station some ways down the street, we decided to call it quits.  There was just too much rain and we were soaked and it was cold.  We went back to the hotel to dry off.  I couldn't just sit around in the hotel, waiting for the rain to stop.  I told the hubster I was going back out to finish up the shopping.  The hubster would have just been following me around.

I went out and rode the metro on my own again and made two stops.  One was to a kitchen supply store.  It wasn't E. Dehillerin which is the more famous one, but to La Vaissellerie.  Aside from the scarf I wanted to buy, I also wanted to buy a small coffee cup and saucer set.  I really grown accustomed to the smaller portions and sizes and I think a set made of French porcelain would always remind me of our trip whenever I used them.

The second stop was to a soap store for souvenirs.  This was a small shop with bars and bars of delicious smelling soap.  I bought 10 bars and plan to give some out as gifts.

So colorful and pretty and delicious smelling

One last stop before coming home was to another random bakery on the street for some more macaroons.  I bought six and they weren't nearly as good as the one giant one I bought the other day.

Coconut, chocolate, vanilla, rose, strawberry, and salted caramel

I grabbed my baked goodies and headed back to the hotel.  Total round trip time was two hours.  While I was out, the hubster had been doing some research for some gifts of his own.  He has two very good friends and he had already picked them up something from the Mercedes Benz museum.  They both like to drink whiskey and scotch, so the hubster wanted to pick up some French whiskey.  He had found an affordable option which was also highly rated.  Once I dropped off my items and warmed up a bit, we headed back out.  On the way over the Maison du Whisky, we came across Maille which is a famous mustard maker in Paris. I'm not a big mustard person, so we didn't buy any.  I did try to convince the hubster to get some since it came up as something to bring home.  No dice.

Mustard!

After picking up to bottles of whiskey, we returned to the hotel.  I was pretty hungry, so we started our nightly ritual of finding a place to eat.  After 10 straight days of this, I was tired of reading reviews.  The hubster stepped in and found a place.  It was a mixed Japanese/Chinese restaurant.  The english was a mix of both and so was the cuisine.  It turned out to be one of the better meals in Paris and it was cheap too!!

€11 gets you noodles, gyoza, and a bowl of fried rice!  Even better, the water was free!  The only place that had free water our entire trip!  Hallelujah!

Yummy!

And of course, here's a shot of all of our souvenirs we bought.

Day 10: Luxembourg

Sunday was our day trip to Luxembourg.  It was supposed to be our 5th country on our European vacation.  We missed our train...

I had set my alarm to wake us up in time to make it to Gare du Nord in time for our train to Luxembourg City.  However, fate had different plans for us.  I went back to sleep after the alarm woke me up and we did not wake up 30 minutes before our train left.  Absolutely no time to make it.  Oh well.  I was ok with that because the hubster and I talked about skipping Luxembourg.  We barely needed the two days to see Brussels or even Stuttgart which are both larger cities than Luxembourg City.  I was concerned that we would be able to fill a full 8 hours in the small city-state.  Also it was Sunday and we already learned our lesson about Sundays.  The hubster wanted to go because he reasoned that we would never have another opportunity to go which I agreed.

I suppose my subconscious took over.  It's ok because I'm ok with an extra day in Paris.  So we took advantage of our extra day and went to Montmartre.  It was a good decision because it is a huge touristy area and the shops were open!  We enjoyed our picnic so much the other day and we happened to walk buy a grocery store on the way back from dinner, we decided to pick up some more supplies.  We had sandwiches, pasta salad, fruit, drinks, bread, and cheese of course!  We hopped onto the train and explored that area of the city.

Sacre Couer from the bottom

There is a small tram that takes you to the top.  It's about 300 stairs.  The hubster was adamant we take it.  It cost one metro ticket.  Since I'd been dragging him all around Europe, I said ok.  The line was pretty long.  Lots of people did not want to walk up the stairs.

We decided to psuedo follow Rick Steves' walking tour.

One of the views

Same view

There were a lot of street artists and what the hubster and I perceived to be con artists.  We tried to avoid them, but there were so many.  I was hyper vigilant with my purse in this area.

We decided we would walk down to the Moulin Rouge from where we were at and then walk back to Sacre Couer for our picnic.

Street cat

Street art

More street art

Moulin Rouge

The walk back was a bit more "scenic" in that this area would be considered Paris' Red Light District.  It's actually a little more in your face than Amsterdam which was surprising.

At our picnic

Beautiful

Garden at Sacre Couer

After Sacre Couer and our lunch picnic, we took the metro and headed to Musee Rodin.  It was part of our Museum Pass and the hubster has wanted to see "The Thinker".  It was a short walk to the museum and on the way, we saw a shiny gold dome.

I wondered what it was and the hubster said it was Napoleon's tomb, AND it was part of the Museum Pass!

Museum garden with the mansion behind us

We didn't actually make it inside the museum.  We only walked around the garden.  The garden portion is only like €2!  There were plenty of sculptures in the garden and some pretty good pieces.  It was good enough for us.

The garden also had the most gorgeous flowers in bloom I have seen in a while.  So many different roses and so many different colors.  I was in awe.

So beautiful

Gorgeous

These are just two samples.  They had every imaginable shade and they were all gorgeous.

"The Thinker"

Me

The hubster and I

Garden

Close up of the mansion

Napoleon's tomb is the back drop for the garden.  The whole city is beautiful from any area it seems

The hubster and I in the garden

Once we finished with the museum, we walked across the street to see Napoleon.

View as we got closer

Detail inside

No idea what this is, but Napoleon's tomb is in the middle of the dome underground and you view it from above.  I think this is some shrine maybe.  Very elaborate.

My Napoleon impression

We finished quickly with this and of course, we were exhausted.  But there was one more spot to hit!   My current obsession was to buy a scarf in Paris.  We decided to walk to the nearest metro and catch it Notre Dame, but not without walking through some more gardens!

Pretty

 We took the RER to Notre Dame which was a completely different system than the metro.  First, it's not just one set of trains on one line, it's different trains on different routes.  Honestly, we could have ended up anywhere, but luckily, we got on the right train.  Getting out of the station was another trick.  You have to retain your ticket and use it to exit the station.  Of course, there were no signs indicating this, so there was a line of tourists wondering what to do.  We finally got out of the station and popped out to this view:

Notre Dame

Us, see that line behind us.  That's to get into the church.

More pictures of the cathedral

We walked around the cathedral for those pictures and we sat down on some benches on the other side.  This was the only public space by a landmark where free wi-fi was offered.  The hubster took a break to post some things on Facebook.  While we were sitting, we something strange.  We saw a few armed military walking through the park area.  Fully armed and fully dressed in uniform.

I feel secure

Amazing

Once we were finished walking around and resting, we walked over to Ile St Louise which is where the scarf place was that I had found online.

The view crossing the bridge from Notre Dame to Ile St Louise

View from the bridge back towards Notre Dame

Another view from the other side of the bridge

When we got to Ile St Louis, we walked along the street and it turned out that the store was closed even though the website said it was open.  *Wah wah*  From what I could see in the window, the scarves they had were gorgeous and I wanted to come back.  There were other stores open and I couldn't resist popping in.  I did end up buying a beautiful grey scarf with white embellishments.  It reminded me of snow or stars.  I love it and will always remember Paris when I wear it.

We started heading to the nearest metro stop to go back to the hotel.  On the way, we walked past some bakeries and stopped in one.  We chose a fudge brownie cake thing and a giant macaroon.  We took them back to the hotel to have a little indoor picnic snack.

Brownie cake, macaroon, pain au chocolat, cheese and bread

That macaroon was the best one I've ever eaten.  It was sooooo good.  I'm sad we didn't get more.  I know that people say Laduree are supposed to be the best, but I never got a chance to try one, but this one was amazing.

Our non-stop go go go pace was finally catching up to us and we were just too tired to research a place for dinner for that evening.  We threw in the towel and had...

McDonalds!

I'm happy to report that Chicken McNuggets taste the same there as they do here.  I know it's so American tourist cliche to eat McDonald's, but I think two American fast food chains in two weeks is acceptable.  One was unavoidable at the train station in Cologne and sometimes, you just need a real taste of home to carry you through the rest of the trip.

Here is a picture of our hotel key.  Who uses these anymore!?!?  I was afraid I was going to break it off.

And that concludes our day trip to Luxembourg, lol